Time Off and Support for Grieving Employees - Brief Article

Workforce, Dec, 2000 by Jennifer Laabs

Although most employees, at some point, will have to deal with the death of a loved one, many organizations aren't adequately prepared to deal with the matters of time off or personal support that such tragedy creates. According to benefits experts, a lot of employers don't have a policy on bereavement leave. Of those that do, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, the average length of the "funeral leave" offered is 3.7 days.

Although employers should show special consideration to employees who must take time off due to bereavement, they should also look at dealing with such leave under the category of "emergency time off" or "short-term absence." Does your company have a plan in place that accommodates employees taking time off to recover from a short-term illness or accident? Does your program lump everything into one leave-time pool that employees can use as they need? What happens if an employee has used up all of his or her personal leave, then needs time off because of a death in the family? What workforce planning options are in place for managers when employees have to take emergency personal time off? Does the work still get done if key personnel must be out?

Many HR policies contain provisions that encompass longer-term worker absences, such as vacations. Unfortunately, many HR pros fail to create short-term time-off programs that enable employees to deal with life's emergencies and help their organizations still get the work done.

The other issue that's often a mystery to employers and employees is how to offer personal support to workers who lose loved ones. Although there are books and resources to help a person who has suffered a loss, few resources exist to help the people who are close to someone who's suffered the loss.

One More Star in Heaven Now: A Guide To Comforting Someone Who Is Grieving in Life and at Work (Blue Point Books, www.west.net/[sim]bpbooks/, c. 1999) by Ann Van Buskirk offers suggestions and assistance on how to support someone who's grieving. Van Buskirk lost her mother to a sudden heart attack 10 years prior, and was astounded at the lack of understanding by those around her.

"When one of your co-workers loses someone close to them, you often want to do something, but are at a loss as to what the right thing is," Van Buskirk says. "And often a lot of emotional pressure will build up in the department because of their frustration. But if people know what to do and say, like offering your skills to make phone calls, or writing notes, or picking up a job that has a deadline, that pressure is relieved for everyone." Van Buskirk says that an employer's sensitivity to a grieving employee's wishes, such as not broadcasting the information about the employee's loss publicly if they don't want it to be known, improves employee morale and creates a sense of goodwill.

Intersections of work and life are inevitable. HR managers who acknowledge and plan for the inevitable enable their organizations to run more effectively.

Jennifer Laabs is a WORKFORCE contributing editor and a Southern California-based business writer.